110 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



sizes of small type. If worked by band, one man or boy can distribute 12,000 

 ems per hour, and with scarcely a possibility of an error of a single type ; 

 whereas by the usual process of hand distribution, 3,000 ems are about the 

 average. The machine can be worked by steam, and one man can then 

 attend to three of them, making the total distribution in one hour 36,000 

 ems. 



SETTING TYPE BY MACHINERY. 



It is not generally known, says the N. Y. Tribune, that five full-sized and 

 expensive machines are in full tide of operation in setting type in the estab- 

 lishment of Mr. Trow, of New York. There is believed to be one in use to 

 some extent in Paris ; but with this exception these are the only machines 

 actually working for this purpose within our knowledge. These five give em- 

 ployment to ten large, and an equal number of small girls, with a foreman to 

 oversee and one additional female to supply the machines with type. Two 

 compositors alternately relieve each other, first setting and next justifying a 

 quantity of matter, while the smaller attendants busy themselves in distribut- 

 ing and arranging the type for the machines. Three thousand ems of long 

 primer have been set per hour, or twenty-six thousand in a day of ten hours, 

 by one girl ; but much depends, of course, on the skill of the operator. The 

 extreme capacity of the machine is ten thousand per hour ; but this limit will 

 probably be never reached. The machine is driven by a band on a pulley, and 

 the labor of setting consists in fingering a set of keys like a piano. Each kind 

 is carried forward on a separate band, and deposited continuously on a single 

 tape running diagonally across the line of the first. From this second tape 

 they are dropped into a wheel, which, in turn, leaves them standing single 

 file on a long galley, from which they are taken and made up into lines of 

 proper length. The enterprise has not until quite lately been made to assume 

 a form in which it appears pecuniarily profitable, and even yet must be reck- 

 oned as a hopeful experiment rather than a triumphant success. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES AND IMPLEMENTS FOB 



WORKING WOOD. 



The Scientific American notices the following improvements in planing 

 machines exhibited at the late Fair of the American Institute : 



Barlow's Rotatory Planing Machine is remarkable for the small space it re- 

 quires. It is very compact, hardly occupying half as much room as an ordinary 

 carpenter's bench. The operating power necessary is also very small. It' 

 planes with great rapidity, and produces work of the very best quality. The 

 machine at the Palace will plane lumber 22 inches in width, or less, and 2 

 inches, or less, in thickness. The cutting is done on the under side of the 

 board. The frame of the machine is in two parts, hinged, so that the upper 

 part can be turned over whenever desirable, and the cutters thus handily got 

 at. One of the feed-rollers is carried in the upper frame, which is almost the 

 only part of the machine that requires adjustment. Changes of thickness arc 

 made in the most convenient manner, by raising or depressing the upper 



